NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 87 



gated shape, could be readily mistaken for handsomely marked speci- 

 mens of eggs of the Red-shouldered Hawk, Buteo lineatus. The 

 average size of the egg is 2.57x1.73. 



184. Guara alba (Linn.) [501.] 



White Ibis. 



Hab. South Atlantic and Gulf States southward to the West Indies and Northern South America; 

 casually on the Atlantic Coast to Long Island ; in the interior to the Lower Ohio Valley and Great Salt Lake. 



The White Ibis or Spanish Curlew is distributed in summer 

 throughout the South Atlantic and Gulf States from the Carolinas 

 southward, throughout Mexico, Central America, and portions of 

 Northern South America. It breeds in communities by thousands 

 in the tangled marshes of the southern coast ; fastening the nest 

 to broken down or upright living reeds; it is composed of reeds, 

 compactly woven together, is deep and much hollowed, which is unlike 

 the frail platform nests of the herons. 



Mr. Stuart says the White Ibis breeds abundantly on the low man- 

 grove bushes on the islands of the Gulf coast. There is a large rook- 

 ery in Charlotte Harbor. The nests are usually made of the green 

 twigs of the mangrove. The eggs are laid in June. At Cape Sable 

 eggs are deposited after the loth of April ; these are from three to five 

 in number, ashy-blue, spotted and blotched irregularly with yellowish, 

 reddish and umber-brown of varying shades ; two or three in number, 

 and measure about 2.25 by 1.50. 



185. Guara rubra (Linn.) [502. J 



Scarlet Ibis. 



Hab. Eastern coasts of tropical America, north casually to Florida, Louisiana and Texas; southward 

 to the West Indies. 



An exquisite bird of the richest scarlet plumage. There is proba- 

 bly no well authenticated instance of its having been taken within the 

 United States. Wilson was not correctly informed concerning its 

 abundance in the Southern States, and Audubon only saw a flock of 

 three in Louisiana. The bird is said not to be an uncommon visitant 

 to Jamaica and Cuba, and very common on the Island of Trinidad, 

 where it formerly nested. Mr. Warren observed the Scarlet Ibis breed- 

 ing in immense colonies on the banks of the Amazon, in dense, im- 

 penetrable thickets of bamboo canes, several kinds of thorny cactus 

 and Spanish bayonets, besides numbers of small mangroves and pal- 

 mettoes, all interlaced and tangled with huge vines. In one place ev- 

 ery bush and tree had on it from five to twenty nests ; they were about 

 a foot and a half in diameter and perfectly flat ; the materials used in 

 their construction were twigs, fibrous roots and leaves. jNIr. Warren 



